TAIPEI: An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) successfully completed its maiden flight, which was a new milestone in Taiwan's progress in the field, academic sources said yesterday.

The unmanned aircraft, dubbed Spoonbill UAV, successfully flew 92 kilometers from Taiwan proper to the outlying island of Penghu Tuesday on what was the first flight of its kind across the Taiwan Straits, NCKU said in a press statement.

NUKU President Michael M.C. Lai, also an Academia Sinica scholar, was quoted in the statement as saying that the unprecedented flight was not only an achievement for the university but was also "Taiwan's pride" and "an important achievement in Asia."

The Spoonbill UAV took off at 9:20 am under manual remote control, flying at 100 kilometers per hour at an altitude of 300 meters toward Penghu's Dongji Island.

Ten minutes after takeoff it was beyond the team's field of vision and switched to automatic control.

The research team piloted the aircraft by remote control to a landing at 10:17 am on Dongji, completing the 52-minute historic flight.

The NCKU's Remotely Piloted Vehicle & Micro Satellite Research Laboratory (RMRL) built the Spoonbill UAV in April this year.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 10/22/2009 page2)